Freeman Honors Organ Donation on Donate Life Rose Parade Float

JOPLIN, Mo. – On New Year’s Day 2016, the Donate Life Rose Parade Float titled “Treasure Life’s Journey” will include a dedication garden made of roses with handwritten dedications by hospital chief executive officers across the country. 

Paula F. Baker, Freeman Health System President and Chief Executive Officer, signed a flower vial that will be part of the float that honors and remember those who gave the gift of life. The note reads: “Freeman Health System honors the patients, families and staff whose commitment to others makes the gift of life possible.”

Debuting in 2004, the Donate Life Rose Parade Float has become the world’s most visible campaign to encourage organ and tissue donation. According to Donate Life America, one person can save up to eight lives through organ donation and 50 lives through tissue donation. More than 6,000 lives are saved annually through living kidney and liver donation. 

“Donation is powerful and important,” said Baker. “We want to honor all organ, eye and tissue donors, the families and their recipients whose lives were forever changed thanks to the gift of life.”

Thousands of vials will be attached to the Donate Life Rose Parade Float, which will feature a colorful caravan with 60 portrait floragraphs that honor deceased organ donors. Twenty four transplant recipients will ride on the float and 12 living donors will walk alongside. The 2016 Rose Parade airs live at 10:00 am Friday, January 1, on a number of broadcast and cable channels.

Freeman Health System – Celebrating 90 Years
Locally owned, not-for-profit and nationally recognized, Freeman Health System includes Freeman Hospital West, Freeman Hospital East, Freeman Neosho Hospital and Ozark Center – the area’s largest provider of behavioral health services – as well as two urgent care clinics, dozens of physician clinics and a variety of specialty services. For 2016, Freeman earned dozens of individual awards for medical excellence and safety from CareChex®, a quality rating system that helps consumers evaluate healthcare providers. U.S. News & World Report ranked Freeman one of the top Hospitals in Southwest Missouri in 2014-15, and The Leapfrog Group gave Freeman the highest grade possible in the Fall 2015 Hospital Safety Score. With more than 300 physicians on staff representing more than 60 specialties, Freeman provides cancer care, heart and vascular care, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopaedics, children’s services and women’s services. Additionally, Freeman is the only Children’s Miracle Network Hospital in a 70-mile radius. For more information, visit freemanhealth.com or facebook.com/freemanhealthsystem or follow Freeman President and Chief Executive Officer Paula Baker at twitter.com/freemanceo. #FreemanTurns9